The medical charity Doctors Without Borders closed its hospital in the Afghan province of Kunduz on Sunday, and charged that a suspected U.S. airstrike that killed 22 people there appeared to have been a war crime.

The closure was a blow to the embattled northern province where more than 400 people have been injured in the last week in fighting between Afghan security forces and the Taliban. The group took control of the provincial capital briefly last week.

The Pentagon said there are three investigations into the airstrike, one by the Defense Department, one involving both the United States and Afghanistan, and one by NATO. Pentagon officials have thus far said only that a U.S. airstrike Saturday morning may have caused collateral damage.

Doctors Without Borders said it would be satisfied only with an investigation by an independent, outside authority.

The aid agency called the bombing, which went on for more than an hour, horrifying and said it had informed U.S. and Afghan officials of the hospital's GPS coordinates before the strike occurred.
Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) in French, said Sunday that the death toll had risen to 22 — 12 staff members and 10 patients, three of them children. The toll was an increase of three over the figure announced previously. In addition, dozens of people were injured.

“Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, MSF demands that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted by an independent international body,” the organization said in a statement on its website. “Relying only on an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly insufficient.”

And, of course, what’s also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize.

President Obama after a US airstrike kills 19 at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan:

On behalf of the American people, I extend my deepest condolences to the medical professionals and other civilians killed and injured in the tragic incident at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz. The Department of Defense has launched a full investigation, and we will await the results of that inquiry before making a definitive judgment as to the circumstances of this tragedy. I have asked the Department of Defense to keep me apprised of the investigation and expect a full accounting of the facts and circumstances. Michelle and I offer our thoughts and prayers to all of the civilians affected by this incident, their families, and loved ones. We will continue to work closely with President Ghani, the Afghan government, and our international partners to support the Afghan National Defense and Security forces as they work to secure their country.

So, I'm guessing this -- like Benghazi -- falls in the category of things that shouldn't be politicized, right?

Foreign policy failures of the highest degree, and they don't think there should be a political price to pay.

I think the Mooslim Neegro should cancel all air strikes in the Middle East. I'm sure all his critics would be deeply impressed by his commitment to peace and understanding and applaud his actions to prevent bloodshed.

I think the Mooslim Neegro should cancel all air strikes in the Middle East. I'm sure all his critics would be deeply impressed by his commitment to peace and understanding and applaud his actions to prevent bloodshed.

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Let's be clear about a few things Starman.

The U.S. military knew the exact coordinates of this hospital:

There was no nearby fighting:

And, so it can't be dismissed as simply "collateral damage":

So, it looks like a lie when we say this:

The United States military, in a statement, confirmed an airstrike at 2:15 a.m., saying that it had been targeting individuals “who were threatening the force” and that “there may have been collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.”

The group, which is also known by its French initials, MSF, said the bombing continued for 30 minutes after the United States and Afghan militaries were informed by telephone that the hospital was being bombed.

“All parties to the conflict including in Kabul and Washington were clearly informed of the precise location [GPS Coordinates] of the MSF facilities — hospital, guesthouse, office,” the group said in a statement.

It seems much more likely that this hospital was a thorn in the side of the Afghan military, and they convinced us to strike it -- possibly with misleading information:

But a Kunduz police spokesman, Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, said Taliban fighters had entered the hospital and were using it as a firing position. The hospital treated the wounded from all sides of the conflict, a policy that has long irked Afghan security forces. In a Twitter post, Arjan Hehenkamp, director of Doctors Without Borders in the Netherlands, denied that Taliban fighters had been in the hospital, saying that only staff, patients and caretakers had been inside.

A defense department admits as much, anonymously justifying the strike to Fox News:

Taliban fighters were among those being treated at the hospital, a defense official told Fox News.

While defense officials told Fox News they “regret the loss” of innocent life, they say the incident could have been avoided if the Taliban had not used the hospital as a base, and the civilians there as human shields.

LOL. Predictable response. I almost left that part out to take that away from you.

So, leave that quote out of it Starman.

What do you think happened? Is it a war crime, a fuck up, or just "collateral damage"?

Are you not concerned at all?

Where are the usual social justice warriors, always so upset about things like Gitmo, and Abu Ghraib? Where are the folks who were so upset about the lies following the death of Pat Tillman or the rescue of Jessica Lynch?

Precisely what parts of the story are you claiming as bullshit---that we're the ones who bombed the hospital? the casualty count? that Doctors Without Borders had repeatedly provided us the hospital coordinates beforehand? Because Fox sure as hell ain't the only one reporting those claims.

Too bad folks can't discuss stories like this without knee jerk jumping behind their party loyalty lines. This sure looks like we messed up and did a really bad thing here. Appears someone in our military's gonna have to do some serious splainin as to why we attacked a neutral humanitarian hospital.

People thought President Obama didn't treat the Dalai Lama, his fellow recipient of the Nobel Peace Price, with proper respect when he had him ushered out the side door of the White House, past the trash:

I guess that's better than getting bombed, which is what MSF, also a Nobel Peace Prize winner got.